The only regular use mine gets is on the gravel driveway or moving brush. It's great for gravel ops.
It's murder on grass for what you're trying to do but I'm a bad operator with terrible three-point skills and bumpy ground. If you flipped it around and had a hyd top link, it might not be so...
Sorry, I'm just now seeing this. Yes, remove the FEL. It's quite easy to do. Trust me, it'll make things go so much more smoothly. I watched a bunch of YT videos about how to do it. You'll be pleasantly surprised once you do it.
And, yes, I used the hook bolts. They worked for me. I...
There are tax and business reasons for doing that. Things that make sense for large-scale operations don't necessarily make sense for us smaller folks. I'm sure their agreement with Deere includes getting them back up and running immediately if something goes down. Same reason big dirt...